Denardo Coleman

Denardo Coleman
Coleman playing with Ornette Coleman, Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, October 29, 1981.
Background information
Birth nameDenardo Ornette Coleman
Born (1956-04-19) April 19, 1956 (age 68)
OriginLos Angeles, California, U.S.
GenresJazz
OccupationMusician
InstrumentDrums
Years active1966–present
Parent(s)Jayne Cortez and Ornette Coleman

Denardo Ornette Coleman (born April 19, 1956) is an American jazz drummer. He is the son of Ornette Coleman and Jayne Cortez.

Biography

Born to Jayne Cortez and Ornette Coleman in Los Angeles, California, in 1956,[1] Denardo Coleman began playing drums when he was six years old. At the age of 10, he joined his father's band,[2] making his first appearance on record on the 1966 Ornette Coleman album The Empty Foxhole, with Charlie Haden on bass. Haden said of Denardo's playing on that recording: "He's going to startle every drummer who hears him."[3]

Denardo went on to feature on his father's later releases, including Ornette at 12 (1968) and Crisis (1969),[1] and played as a member of Ornette's Prime Time ensemble in the 1970s. He also worked with his mother in the band The Firespitters, and has played with Geri Allen, Pat Metheny, James Blood Ulmer, and Jamaaladeen Tacuma. In the 1980s Coleman started to manage his father's career, which he continued doing for the next 30 years.[4]

Coleman has also done extensive work as a producer,[1] including on albums by both of his parents, and on In All Languages and Virgin Beauty in the 1980s and Hidden Man and Three Women in the '90s.[5] In 2017, on a new label called Song X Records (referencing the title of one of his father's favorite compositions), he produced Celebrate Ornette, a tribute to his father, in a box set with 24 performances captured on two DVDs, three CDs, and four vinyl LPs.[6][7]

Discography

As sideman

With Ornette Coleman

With Jayne Cortez & the Firespitters

With James Blood Ulmer

With Charnett Moffett

  • Treasure (King Japan, 2010)

References

  1. ^ a b c "Coleman, Denardo (Ornette)" Archived June 20, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians, Jazz.com
  2. ^ Andrew R. Chow, "Remembering What Made Ornette Coleman a Jazz Visionary", The New York Times, June 27, 2015.
  3. ^ John Litweiler, Ornette Coleman: A Harmolodic Life (New York: William Morrow, 1992), p. 121. Quoted in Nathan A. Frink, "An Analysis of the Compositional Practices of Ornette Coleman as Demonstrated in his Small Group Recordings During the 1970s", 2009, p. 24. Retrieved June 20, 2013.
  4. ^ Denardo Coleman, "My father was deep". Liner notes from Celebrate Ornette, 2017.
  5. ^ "Artist Biography by Alex Henderson". AllMusic. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  6. ^ Celebrate Ornette Archived January 23, 2016, at the Wayback Machine website.
  7. ^ David Fricke, "Review: 'Celebrate Ornette' Gives Avant-Jazz Legend an All-Star Farewell", Rolling Stone, February 1, 2017.
  8. ^ Richard Brody, "The Best Jazz Reissues and Rediscoveries of 2017", The New Yorker, December 15, 2017.